The development and proliferation of information networks and technologies have revolutionized traditional methods of asynchronous interpersonal communication of information. Asynchronous communication is described as the exchange of messages or data between two or more parties over a displacement of time. Typically, asynchronous communication is performed via the publishing (e.g., delivery) and subsequent viewing of some parcel containing the message between two or more communication participants.
Since asynchronous communication generally includes the exchange of information over some tangible medium or via an object, the medium or object may have a persistent quality. Accordingly, these objects may be preserved and stored, and the message or data comprising the asynchronous communication may be retained, archived, and referenced one or more times after reception. In contrast, traditional synchronous communication methods include the interchange of speech or information in real time (e.g., a conversation), wherein retrospective reference is generally not possible and/or easily available due to typical, self-limiting design constraints of conventional synchronous communication interfaces.
Traditional methods of asynchronous communication still in use today include mail delivery (or “post”) and bulletin boards—a shared resource wherein one or more messages may be posted and displayed. Typically, these messages are used to advertise goods or services, and provide announcements. Traditionally, bulletin boards are often made of a material such as cork to facilitate the addition, removal and replacement of messages.
Popular digital communication techniques such as electronic mail (e-mail) and digital message boards (also known as “discussion forums”) have been developed to support asynchronous communication that provide numerous benefits—such as near-instantaneous delivery and worldwide accessibility—over their traditional, physical counterparts. Both forms of digital asynchronous communication techniques extend the ability to support remote, distanced communication, as well as co-located communication. Unfortunately, the same two major classes of asynchronous communication—that is, e-mail and discussion forums—each provide distinct advantages whilst simultaneously suffering from varied and significant flaws.
For example, with respect to discussion forums, an individual may publish or “post” a (generally) untargeted message (e.g., posing a question, for example) on a topical discussion forum and wait for other users of the forum to view the question and to post an informative response. Alternatively, typical discussion forums also provide the ability to review and reuse previous questions and answers by allowing a user to run a search in past forum entries of relevant keywords or terms related to the individual's question.
In theory, public discussion forums are based on the underlying model of a large, global network and rely on the principle that given enough viewers of a forum message, a portion of those viewers will post a response. Unfortunately, this reliance on user-generated content can have unpredictable results. For example, the efficacy of discussion forums for obtaining relevant information can be highly variable and inconsistent between one discussion forum and the next. The quality and timeliness of the responses may fluctuate drastically, depending on the popularity and demographic of the forum, and the interest of the core viewing audience in the particular subject matter or message topic.
Moreover, typical public discussion forums have limited or nonexistent moderation and filtering of irrelevant responses. As a result, unqualified and/or malicious individuals may also post responses which may subject the original message poster to unwanted derision, embarrassment and dangerous advice with little to no repercussion. In many instances, a user in the discussion forum will not be familiar or personally acquainted with the large majority of the discussion forum constituents and, as a result, may be disinclined to exert a significant amount of resources or effort to provide assistance.
Moreover, with no knowledge of the respondent's qualifications, a forum participant may lack confidence in the veracity of the information received. Furthermore, the untargeted nature and anonymity of discussion forums supply little or no impetus for the viewing constituency to participate in a discussion or assist a posting user. As a result, urgent messages that seek immediate attention may not be addressed in a timely manner. Naturally, all of these circumstances, alone or in combination can adversely affect the user's experience.
The other widely used tool for digital interpersonal asynchronous communication is the usage of electronic mail, wherein a question or message through some interface may be delivered to identified individuals or organizations. The same individual or organization members may use a compatible interface to view and respond to the message. Since the recipients of the message are specifically targeted, the identification of the individual within the context of the electronic mail system must be provided with particularity. Naturally, specific identification typically corresponds with a greater level of familiarity, thus the disadvantages incumbent to a public un-targeted discussion forum of anonymous users can be mitigated to some degree.
The advantage of e-mail is that specifically targeted messages increase the chance of a timely response. With respect to answering a question, the recipient of the e-mail message may respond likewise with either the answer, or forward the message (or provide a reference) to someone else who knows the answer. Unfortunately, that same requirement of identifying with particularity the recipients of an e-mail naturally limits the viewing audience. As a result, the available pool of knowledge is commensurately much smaller.
Moreover, e-mail by nature is not publicly accessible and thus does not provide the ability for reuse. Consequently, questions which have been answered by others in the past may not be referenced, and the efficiency of that capability is lost. Furthermore, each individual or a list of individuals must be selected by the message's originator. The message's originator must consider the qualifications of the recipient(s) and estimate the recipient(s) availability and responsiveness on a generally individual basis. In addition, this factor also inherently imposes an effective ceiling on the aggregate pool of expertise that is limited to the individuals the message's originator knows. Obviously, the pool of expertise may be drastically different for each message originator, thus the efficacy of e-mail as a resource may fluctuate dramatically between users. Moreover, a greater number of recipients typically correlates to an increase in the time required to address and include each recipient, thereby reducing the efficiency of the process.